ASUS's U30 series of 13-inch ultraportable notebooks has long provided a strong mix of portability and power, from the original U30Jc with its 7 hours of endurance to the snazzy bamboo U33Jc. The ASUS U36Jc ups the ante with a slick 3.8-pound frame, snazzy aluminum-magnesium alloy lid, speedy 2.53-GHz Core i5 CPU, and Nvidia's Optimus switchable graphics. But are its strong specs good enough to justify its price--$1,000--and beat out its competitors?
Design
Super sleek, the 0.76-inch thick ASUS U36Jc's lid is built from a lightweight, raven black aluminum-magnesium alloy, while its matching palm rest is covered in a soft matte material that ASUS describes as "nanometer" coating. Unfortunately, the area near the screen doesn't have the same premium look as the palm rest and lid; its glossy plastic hinges drag down the aesthetic a bit, as does the gap between the screen and the deck.
At 3.8 pounds, the U36JC is quite a bit lighter than the previous generation U33Jc (4.4 pounds), but a little heavier than the Toshiba Portege R700 (3.2 pounds) and the Lenovo IdeaPad U260 (3 pounds). With dimensions of 12.9 x 9.28 x 0.76 inches, this laptop is also slightly larger than the U260 (12.5 x 8.1 x 0.7 inches) and R700 (12.4 x 8.9 x 0.7 inches).
Heat
While the top surface of the ASUS U36Jc stayed relatively cool throughout our testing, its underside reached uncomfortably high temperatures. After playing a full-screen video for 15 minutes, we measured the touchpad at a pleasant 85 degrees and the G and H keys at an acceptable 95 degrees Fahrenheit. However, the bottom measured a warm 105 degrees and, while playing World of Warcraft, it reached 110 degrees.
We consider temperatures below 95 degrees acceptable on the top surface of a notebook and temperatures of 100 degrees and below unpleasant but common for the bottom. However, this type of underside heat would make us think twice about placing the U36Jc on our lap while gaming.
Keyboard and Touchpad
The U36Jc's island-style black keyboard has the same look and layout as those on a number of Eee PC netbooks, from the 10-inch Eee PC 1015PN to the 12-inch Eee PC VX6. There's no flex at all, but the keys do feel a little stiff, which led us to a make a few more errors than usual while typing. We also wish the right Shift key were larger.
The 3 x 2-inch touchpad has a pleasant matte surface that matches the palm rest and allowed us to navigate around the desktop with ease. It also supports multitouch gestures such as pinch-to-zoom. Though we would have preferred two discrete buttons, the single mouse bar provided good tactile feedback and was not too stiff.
